Latest news with #Holbrooks
BBC News
08-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Coventry dementia charity cafe secures £280k funding
Dementia charity cafe secures £280k funding A community hub that supports people with dementia has welcomed extra funding to run its cafe. The Forget Me Not Cafe is part of the Coventry Dementia Partnership Hub, which opened its doors in Holbrooks two years ago, offering a safe space for those with the condition and respite for their carers. Thanks to the National Lottery Fund, the Hub has received £280,000 over the next five years to continue the work. "The cafe is at the heart of the Hub, which adds to a fantastic resource for families and carers to get the support and helps to reduce any stigma of dementia within communities," Councillor Linda Bigham said.
BBC News
12-04-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Deadly measles outbreak does little to counter vaccine scepticism in Texas
In nearby Lubbock, Texas, just two days after the news of Daisy's death, all was quiet at the health department's vaccination clinic. Other days have been busier, with as many as 20 people coming in for vaccines, said Katherine Wells, director of public health for the city, where hospitals receive children with severe measles cases from more rural counties. Since the outbreak began in January, the city of Seminole has vaccinated 103 adults and 143 children against the measles, Mr Holbrooks said. The neighbouring three rural counties decided to close their underused vaccine clinics and send more staff to hard-hit Seminole. "There's always talk on, what else can we do, and are we doing enough?" Mr Holbrooks said. "We want to build trust, not tear it down." At times, local health officials have seen progress. A Mennonite doctor in Andrews County gained community members' trust and encouraged them to get vaccinated, said Mr Mattimoe. "Those trusted messengers in those communities - I think that's very important," he said. Ms Wells hopes vaccinations will start to pick up after the latest measles death and the city's new guidance to vaccinate children as young as six months, instead of one year. The bigger city saw an outbreak at a daycare among children too young to be fully vaccinated, a situation she believes will be helped by the earlier shots. But, "there's always going to be some people that we don't reach", Ms Wells said. That means the virus is likely to circulate for a while in western Texas regions where people are unvaccinated, officials said. "We're just at the beginning of it," Mr Mattimoe said. "It's going to have to run through the community. Until they get that natural immunity, it'll just keep running its course."
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Deadly measles outbreak does little to counter vaccine scepticism in Texas
On an unusually crisp April day in a rural Texas town, dozens of Mennonite community members gathered alongside the nation's top health official, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to mourn an eight-year-old. Daisy Hildebrand is the second unvaccinated girl from the community to die from measles within two months. Officials in Seminole town also joined the reception after her funeral to support the family, said South Plains Public Health Director Zach Holbrooks. This time, there was no talk of the vaccine that prevents measles deaths - unlike many of his long days since the outbreak began. "The focus was on their healing," Mr Holbrooks said. "You never want to see anybody pass away, especially a child that young, from any kind of illness, because there is a prevention for it - the MMR vaccine." Like other Seminole natives, Mr Holbrooks was not vaccinated against measles as a child. He got a shot in college, and another in February, when his hometown became the epicentre of one of the country's worst measles outbreaks in a decade. The US has seen more than 700 cases this year. The majority of infections - 541 as of Friday - occurred in western Texas, with 56 patients sent to the hospital. Cases in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas also are linked to the outbreak. Two children, including Daisy, have died - the first recorded fatalities from measles in the US since 2015. It's not slowing down either, public health experts say. They try to reach vaccine-hesitant residents, but struggle with those who carry on with daily life as usual and with mixed messaging from federal officials, including Kennedy who has endorsed immunization conspiracy theories in the past. "I wish there were more coming in to get the vaccine," Mr Holbrooks said. "We can put messaging out, but it's up to them to come see us." The western Texas town of Seminole - population 7,000 - is bordered by miles of rural farmland and oil fields. Among billboards for restaurants, gun silencers and tractors, a digital sign hints at the crisis gripping the community: a warning about the dangers of measles, which can cause complications including pneumonia, brain swelling and death. It has spread rapidly among Mennonites, a religious community living near Seminole. Mr Holbrooks estimates the population could be as many as 40,000 across several counties. In those areas, public school vaccination rates are as low as 82%. Roughly 95% of a community must be vaccinated against the measles to achieve herd immunity, when enough of a group is immune to a disease that its spread is limited and the unvaccinated are protected. Mr Holbrooks remembers when the Low German Mennonite group began immigrating to his hometown and nearby states in the 1970s. The religion has no specific doctrines against vaccinations, but they tend to avoid many modern aspects of life, including the health care system. Their community is not alone. At least 118,000 kindergartners in Texas are exempt from one or more vaccines, mostly in rural areas, said Terri Burke, director of Texas vaccine advocacy group, the Immunization Partnership. Parents can get a waiver to exempt their child from school vaccine requirements for a variety of reasons, including religion. Savannah Knelsen, an 18-year-old server at a Seminole barbecue restaurant, has not been vaccinated against measles - or anything else. Many of her family members and friends - also unvaccinated - caught the measles in recent weeks. One relative developed a fever of 104.5 F (40.2 C), but still chose not to go to the hospital. The recent deaths of two children have not convinced her to get vaccinated, she said, adding that she was healthy and wanted to let her body "fight off" infections. Experts agree the vaccine is the best way to prevent infections - including severe ones. Ms Knelsen's 19-year-old co-worker, Jessica Giesbrecht, along with her family, has been vaccinated against the measles. "I'm worried for my baby niece," Ms Giesbrecht said, adding she was too young to be vaccinated. Still, the two said the outbreak doesn't weigh heavily on daily life. Others in Seminole agree. A cashier at a local pharmacy said no one has stopped by for measles vaccinations since the outbreak started. "People are just going about their lives," she said. On Sunday, Kennedy made his first trip to the region since the outbreak to attend the 8-year-old girl's funeral. The top US health official is an unlikely figure to spearhead the fight against measles - he has in the past endorsed conspiracy theories about immunizations, including debunked claims about links to autism. He downplayed the outbreak in western Texas at first, calling it "not unusual". Trump echoed these remarks last weekend, saying that only a "fairly small number of people" had been impacted, when he was asked by the BBC about the outbreak aboard Air Force One. It was "not something new", he added. On Wednesday, Kennedy gave his strongest statement yet in support of the measles vaccine, telling the BBC's US partner CBS News, "The federal government's position, my position, is that people should get the measles vaccine." The remarks were met with social media backlash from some anti-vaccine supporters. Kennedy added, however, that the government "should not be mandating" vaccines. The influence of some of his earlier remarks lingers. In one of several Mennonite-owned natural-health stores in Seminole, dozens of bottles of cod liver oil - a supplement that contains vitamin A - are on display. Alongside the vaccine, Kennedy has promoted vitamin A as an alternative measles treatment, a remedy doctors say should not be given without guidance from a physician and is no substitute for the vaccine. The treatment has at times proven dangerous. Covenant Children's Hospital in nearby Lubbock told the BBC it has treated several unvaccinated children with measles for vitamin A toxicity - some had used it a preventative measure. The community needs federal officials to provide stronger messaging to help convince people to get vaccinated and slow the outbreak, said Gordon Mattimoe, director of the health department in nearby Andrews County. "People look to their leaders to lead," he said. Jeff Hutt, a former spokesperson for the Make America Healthy Again political action committee and Kennedy's former national field director, argued that the health secretary had to "cover the middle ground", providing statements that are "politically adequate" while also providing sceptical stances on vaccines. "In covering the middle ground, I'm not necessarily sure he was able to reassure folks that he had a handle on [measles], or that he was able to reassure folks that he was sticking to his guns," Mr Hutt said. The Trump administration's health policies could have other consequences in Texas, officials say. Local health departments are at risk of losing critical resources because of attempts to cut $11.4b (£8.8) in public health grants. The move was temporarily blocked by a judge last week. Mr Mattimoe said that because of the potential cuts - around $250,000 in grant funding for his health department - he is not able to hire a new nurse to give immunizations. In a statement to the BBC, the US Department of Health and Human Services said it deployed the "necessary" resources from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to respond to the outbreak. "The CDC is in close, constant communication with local and state health officials on the ground to ensure they have what they need," the official said. The Texas Department of Health Services could lose as much as $550m in grant funding. It has provided staff, vaccines, testing and other support to local health departments, but likely will need extra funding, said spokesperson Chris Van Deusen told the BBC. Mr Mattimoe contacted lawmakers and the state for help, but is not hopeful. "I don't think they have the funds," he said. In nearby Lubbock, Texas, just two days after the news of Daisy's death, all was quiet at the health department's vaccination clinic. Other days have been busier, with as many as 20 people coming in for vaccines, said Katherine Wells, director of public health for the city, where hospitals receive children with severe measles cases from more rural counties. Since the outbreak began in January, the city of Seminole has vaccinated 103 adults and 143 children against the measles, Mr Holbrooks said. The neighbouring three rural counties decided to close their underused vaccine clinics and send more staff to hard-hit Seminole. "There's always talk on, what else can we do, and are we doing enough?" Mr Holbrooks said. "We want to build trust, not tear it down." At times, local health officials have seen progress. A Mennonite doctor in Andrews County gained community members' trust and encouraged them to get vaccinated, said Mr Mattimoe. "Those trusted messengers in those communities - I think that's very important," he said. Ms Wells hopes vaccinations will start to pick up after the latest measles death and the city's new guidance to vaccinate children as young as six months, instead of one year. The bigger city saw an outbreak at a daycare among children too young to be fully vaccinated, a situation she believes will be helped by the earlier shots. But, "there's always going to be some people that we don't reach", Ms Wells said. That means the virus is likely to circulate for a while in western Texas regions where people are unvaccinated, officials said. "We're just at the beginning of it," Mr Mattimoe said. "It's going to have to run through the community. Until they get that natural immunity, it'll just keep running its course." Second child dies of measles as Texas outbreak worsens Measles cases pick up as RFK promotes unproven treatments RFK's measles response under scrutiny as deadly outbreak frightens Texas parents
BBC News
12-04-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Measles outbreak in west Texas worsens due to vaccine scepticism
On an unusually crisp April day in a rural Texas town, dozens of Mennonite community members gathered alongside the nation's top health official, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to mourn an Hildebrand is the second unvaccinated girl from the community to die from measles within two in Seminole town also joined the reception after her funeral to support the family, said South Plains Public Health Director Zach Holbrooks. This time, there was no talk of the vaccine that prevents measles deaths - unlike many of his long days since the outbreak began."The focus was on their healing," Mr Holbrooks said. "You never want to see anybody pass away, especially a child that young, from any kind of illness, because there is a prevention for it - the MMR vaccine."Like other Seminole natives, Mr Holbrooks was not vaccinated against measles as a child. He got a shot in college, and another in February, when his hometown became the epicentre of one of the country's worst measles outbreaks in a US has seen more than 700 cases this year. The majority of infections - 541 as of Friday - occurred in western Texas, with 56 patients sent to the hospital. Cases in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas also are linked to the outbreak. Two children, including Daisy, have died - the first recorded fatalities from measles in the US since not slowing down either, public health experts say. They try to reach vaccine-hesitant residents, but struggle with those who carry on with daily life as usual and with mixed messaging from federal officials, including Kennedy who has endorsed immunization conspiracy theories in the past."I wish there were more coming in to get the vaccine," Mr Holbrooks said. "We can put messaging out, but it's up to them to come see us." 'Going about' life in a measles epicentre The western Texas town of Seminole - population 7,000 - is bordered by miles of rural farmland and oil billboards for restaurants, gun silencers and tractors, a digital sign hints at the crisis gripping the community: a warning about the dangers of measles, which can cause complications including pneumonia, brain swelling and has spread rapidly among Mennonites, a religious community living near Seminole. Mr Holbrooks estimates the population could be as many as 40,000 across several counties. In those areas, public school vaccination rates are as low as 82%. Roughly 95% of a community must be vaccinated against the measles to achieve herd immunity, when enough of a group is immune to a disease that its spread is limited and the unvaccinated are Holbrooks remembers when the Low German Mennonite group began immigrating to his hometown and nearby states in the 1970s. The religion has no specific doctrines against vaccinations, but they tend to avoid many modern aspects of life, including the health care system. Their community is not alone. At least 118,000 kindergartners in Texas are exempt from one or more vaccines, mostly in rural areas, said Terri Burke, director of Texas vaccine advocacy group, the Immunization Partnership. Parents can get a waiver to exempt their child from school vaccine requirements for a variety of reasons, including Knelsen, an 18-year-old server at a Seminole barbecue restaurant, has not been vaccinated against measles - or anything else. Many of her family members and friends - also unvaccinated - caught the measles in recent weeks. One relative developed a fever of 104.5 F (40.2 C), but still chose not to go to the recent deaths of two children have not convinced her to get vaccinated, she said, adding that she was healthy and wanted to let her body "fight off" infections. Experts agree the vaccine is the best way to prevent infections - including severe Knelsen's 19-year-old co-worker, Jessica Giesbrecht, along with her family, has been vaccinated against the measles."I'm worried for my baby niece," Ms Giesbrecht said, adding she was too young to be the two said the outbreak doesn't weigh heavily on daily life. Others in Seminole agree.A cashier at a local pharmacy said no one has stopped by for measles vaccinations since the outbreak started. "People are just going about their lives," she said. Kennedy tries to 'cover middle ground' On Sunday, Kennedy made his first trip to the region since the outbreak to attend the 8-year-old girl's top US health official is an unlikely figure to spearhead the fight against measles - he has in the past endorsed conspiracy theories about immunizations, including debunked claims about links to autism. He downplayed the outbreak in western Texas at first, calling it "not unusual".Trump echoed these remarks last weekend, saying that only a "fairly small number of people" had been impacted, when he was asked by the BBC about the outbreak aboard Air Force One. It was "not something new", he Wednesday, Kennedy gave his strongest statement yet in support of the measles vaccine, telling the BBC's US partner CBS News, "The federal government's position, my position, is that people should get the measles vaccine." The remarks were met with social media backlash from some anti-vaccine supporters. Kennedy added, however, that the government "should not be mandating" influence of some of his earlier remarks one of several Mennonite-owned natural-health stores in Seminole, dozens of bottles of cod liver oil - a supplement that contains vitamin A - are on display. Alongside the vaccine, Kennedy has promoted vitamin A as an alternative measles treatment, a remedy doctors say should not be given without guidance from a physician and is no substitute for the vaccine. The treatment has at times proven dangerous. Covenant Children's Hospital in nearby Lubbock told the BBC it has treated several unvaccinated children with measles for vitamin A toxicity - some had used it a preventative community needs federal officials to provide stronger messaging to help convince people to get vaccinated and slow the outbreak, said Gordon Mattimoe, director of the health department in nearby Andrews County."People look to their leaders to lead," he Hutt, a former spokesperson for the Make America Healthy Again political action committee and Kennedy's former national field director, argued that the health secretary had to "cover the middle ground", providing statements that are "politically adequate" while also providing sceptical stances on vaccines."In covering the middle ground, I'm not necessarily sure he was able to reassure folks that he had a handle on [measles], or that he was able to reassure folks that he was sticking to his guns," Mr Hutt said. Slashing funds in an outbreak zone The Trump administration's health policies could have other consequences in Texas, officials say. Local health departments are at risk of losing critical resources because of attempts to cut $11.4b (£8.8) in public health grants. The move was temporarily blocked by a judge last Mattimoe said that because of the potential cuts - around $250,000 in grant funding for his health department - he is not able to hire a new nurse to give a statement to the BBC, the US Department of Health and Human Services said it deployed the "necessary" resources from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to respond to the outbreak."The CDC is in close, constant communication with local and state health officials on the ground to ensure they have what they need," the official Texas Department of Health Services could lose as much as $550m in grant funding. It has provided staff, vaccines, testing and other support to local health departments, but likely will need extra funding, said spokesperson Chris Van Deusen told the Mattimoe contacted lawmakers and the state for help, but is not hopeful."I don't think they have the funds," he said. 'Trusted messengers' In nearby Lubbock, Texas, just two days after the news of Daisy's death, all was quiet at the health department's vaccination days have been busier, with as many as 20 people coming in for vaccines, said Katherine Wells, director of public health for the city, where hospitals receive children with severe measles cases from more rural the outbreak began in January, the city of Seminole has vaccinated 103 adults and 143 children against the measles, Mr Holbrooks said. The neighbouring three rural counties decided to close their underused vaccine clinics and send more staff to hard-hit Seminole."There's always talk on, what else can we do, and are we doing enough?" Mr Holbrooks said. "We want to build trust, not tear it down."At times, local health officials have seen progress.A Mennonite doctor in Andrews County gained community members' trust and encouraged them to get vaccinated, said Mr Mattimoe."Those trusted messengers in those communities - I think that's very important," he Wells hopes vaccinations will start to pick up after the latest measles death and the city's new guidance to vaccinate children as young as six months, instead of one bigger city saw an outbreak at a daycare among children too young to be fully vaccinated, a situation she believes will be helped by the earlier "there's always going to be some people that we don't reach", Ms Wells means the virus is likely to circulate for a while in western Texas regions where people are unvaccinated, officials said."We're just at the beginning of it," Mr Mattimoe said. "It's going to have to run through the community. Until they get that natural immunity, it'll just keep running its course."
Voice of America
10-02-2025
- Health
- Voice of America
15 cases of measles in Texas county with numerous vaccine exemptions
Fifteen measles cases — mostly in school-aged children — have been confirmed in a small county in West Texas with one of the highest rates of vaccine exemptions in the state. South Plains Public Health District Director Zach Holbrooks said Monday that his department was first notified in late January about the first two cases in Gaines County, which he said were 'two children who had seen a physician in Lubbock.' Some of the cases appear to be connected to private religious schools in the district, said Holbrooks, who cautioned that the investigation is ongoing. 'I wouldn't say they're all connected, but our teams are looking into exposure sites and the background of those cases," he said. Local health officials set up a drive-through vaccination clinic last week and are offering screening services to residents. The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60. This month, health officials in metro Atlanta are working to contain a measles case that spread to two unvaccinated family members. Texas law allows children to get an exemption from school vaccines for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs. The percentage of kids with exemptions has risen over the last decade from .76% in 2014 to 2.32% last year, according to Texas Department of State Health Services data. Gaines County has one of the highest rates in Texas of school-aged children who opt out of at least one required vaccine: Nearly 14% of children from kindergarten through grade 12 had an exemption in the 2023-24 school year, which is more than five times the state average of 2.32% and beyond the national rate of 3.3%. But the number of unvaccinated kids in the county is likely significantly higher, DSHS spokesperson Lara Anton said, because Gaines County has many children who are homeschooled and whose data would not be reported. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are a two-shot series: The first is recommended at 12 to 15 months old and second between 4 to 6 years old. The vaccine is required to attend most public schools in the U.S. But vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic and most states are below the 95% vaccination threshold for kindergartners — the level needed to protect communities against measles outbreaks. Lawmakers across the country have proposed various vaccine requirement changes at a time when anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is awaiting confirmation as the secretary of Health and Human Services. One of the early Gaines County cases traveled to neighboring New Mexico while they were still infectious, Anton said, but there were no immediate reports of infection. New Mexico Department of Health spokesperson Robert Nott said the agency has been in communication with Texas officials but there was no known exposure to measles in his state. 'We're going to watch this very closely,' Nott said. Two cases of measles were reported in early January in the Houston area, but Holbrooks said the West Texas cases don't appear to be connected. Measles is a highly contagious virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before the vaccine was introduced in 1963, the U.S. saw some 3 million to 4 million cases per year. Now, it's usually fewer than 200 in a normal year.
